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[betrayal]

Dang NABBIT! Probarly won't get jabbed until August they say now.. This is going so slowly over here in Sweden.

Found a interesting piece on Vitamin D and Corona, glad I am supplementing.

COVID-19 Information From Our Experts

The extent of the coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19) is rapidly evolving and risk assessment changes daily, but here’s what we know about COVID-19 as of today.

www.uchicagomedicine.org

This is not new information, but it cannot be emphasized often enough that vitamin D is generally enormously important for the immune system and has very strong positive effects, especially on respiratory diseases. There are hundreds of studies on this. The only problem with it, why you hardly hear about it, is that nobody earns money from it, because it is cheap.

We humans just weren't made to sit indoors all day and cover most of our bodies with clothes when we go outside.

Even better than taking vitamin D is to go outside regularly and for longer periods of time, without sunscreen but also without getting sunburned, because that increases the positive effects even more. There are also studies on this, but it is not really known yet why this also makes a difference compared to vitamin D supplementation.

 

[longdi]

i rather go outside with sun screen and take liquid vitamin D.
skin cancer, skin pigmentation, wrinkles from the sun? nty!

 

[llien]

There is no scientific consensus on the benefits of Vitamin D against C19.
The theory it MIGHT help is based on about 80%+ of people with issues having low vitamin D (Spanish study).
But whether it is a cause or not, and even more so, whether vitamin D supplements help, if you already are at normal level, is not clear at all.

And, by the way, unlike with C, overdoses of D can harm.

 

[llien]

Vaccine roll out is ramping up in Germany (and, I guess, EU as a whole) in parallel with Pfizer-BioNTech jab deliveries.

Curious on the pic is the much larger number of jabs being the first vaccination. I was wondering, if going UK way on "first jab out first" would be more sensible, but it seems that it wouldn't make that much of a difference, at least, not at this point:

 

[Jezbollah]

Reaching ‘Herd Immunity’ Is Unlikely in the U.S., Experts Now Believe (Published 2021)

Widely circulating coronavirus variants and persistent hesitancy about vaccines will keep the goal out of reach. The virus is here to stay, but vaccinating the most vulnerable may be enough to restore normalcy.

www.nytimes.com

The prevelence of new variants in the future is an assumption, but the numbers are clear that show a big issue of lack of sufficient uptake of the vaccines in the US. Herd immunity will struggle to be obtained without this. At the very least this will hinder recovery post pandemic, as the world heads into the endemic stage.

 

[Liljagare]

There is no scientific consensus on the benefits of Vitamin D against C19.
The theory it MIGHT help is based on about 80%+ of people with issues having low vitamin D (Spanish study).
But whether it is a cause or not, and even more so, whether vitamin D supplements help, if you already are at normal level, is not clear at all.

And, by the way, unlike with C, overdoses of D can harm.

There are more and more studies showing that it does help (several have been posted in the thread), and that the worry over toxicity from taking supplements is largely unfounded The United States poison control center has reported data from the years 2000 to 2014, revealing that there were 25,397 people exposed to vitamin D toxicity. The annual mean was 196 cases per year from 2000 to 2005, with a subsequent 1600% increase in exposures between 2005 and 2011 to a new mean per annum of 4535 exposures per year. Symptomatic vitamin D toxicity is uncommon, and elevated levels of 25(OH)D do not strongly correlate with clinical symptoms or total serum/plasma calcium levels.

But, what I find interesting, is that this sentence is common in alot of reports that end up with the conclusion that they can't really state wether or not it works "After adjustment for age, gender and comorbidities, vitamin D deficiency was strongly associated with combined risk for mechanical ventilation and/or death". But they still can't say that supplements might be a good idea? I find it curious.

 

[Liljagare]

I just want to say, "OMFG!" @ what is apparently happening in Stockholm, regarding the vaccinations, turns out, in some area they are at 5%-20% capacity only, and that they have nurses/staff just standing around. Apparently, thousands of doses are tossed out, due to people not going to take their jab (currently 61 years old and up + risk groups are being called).

What is even going on?! Atleast my old folks all got theirs, but why are so many not going?

 

[Kenpachii]

I just want to say, "OMFG!" @ what is apparently happening in Stockholm, regarding the vaccinations, turns out, in some area they are at 5%-20% capacity only, and that they have nurses/staff just standing around. Apparently, thousands of doses are tossed out, due to people not going to take their jab (currently 61 years old and up + risk groups are being called).

What is even going on?! Atleast my old folks all got theirs, but why are so many not going?

Probably one of those other vaccines that people hear bad things about. Same here, 150 people get called only 2 show up.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Cases are spiking again in my area and we went backwards. They changed in door limits from 50% capacity to 25%. I have no idea why cases are increasing when so many people are getting vaccinated. I hope it is temporary.

Also, what is going on in India is terrible. I really hope the double mutation doesn't spread.

Where are you? Vaccination rates are not the same everywhere. A lot of densely populated urban areas haven't gotten vaccinated in the same numbers. Look at Detroit, they just had a huge spike, but they were also only like 15-20% vaccinated, way behind the rest of the region

The bar for herd immunity is fairly high. The US is hitting it a little earlier than some other places because so many people already have acquired immunity from getting Covid. Within 4-5 weeks we might be at something like 75-80% of adults innoculated, even with only 65% vaccinated.

I know people will say "but kids", but I think kids natural resistance to Covid already puts them at a level where they aren't major vectors by themselves. Like they're pretty much at herd immunity levels when the rest of the population is too.

This doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't get your kids vaccinated, there's no harm in it, but I don't think they are a major consideration when talking about herd immunity.

 

[SF Kosmo]

There is no scientific consensus on the benefits of Vitamin D against C19.
The theory it MIGHT help is based on about 80%+ of people with issues having low vitamin D (Spanish study).
But whether it is a cause or not, and even more so, whether vitamin D supplements help, if you already are at normal level, is not clear at all.

And, by the way, unlike with C, overdoses of D can harm.

The Spanish study was retracted because they couldn't reproduce any of the results in a double blind study. One of the those "correlation is not causation" things.

Being Vitamin D deficient is bad for immune system. You should take Vitamin D. But Vitamin D is not a shield against Covid.

There are more and more studies showing that it does help (several have been posted in the thread),

There really aren't. Being deficient in Vitamin D can hurt to an extent but the extent to which it really matters is often massively overstated. It's a minor factor at most.

 

[SF Kosmo]

There are more and more studies showing that it does help (several have been posted in the thread),

There really aren't. Being deficient in Vitamin D can hurt to an extent but the extent to which it really matters is often massively overstated. It's a minor factor at most.

For people with dark skin who process less Vitamin D, they have found it might give you like a 7% boost in immunity. Compared to 95% from a vaccine. Take your vaccine.

 

[SF Kosmo]

I just want to say, "OMFG!" @ what is apparently happening in Stockholm, regarding the vaccinations, turns out, in some area they are at 5%-20% capacity only, and that they have nurses/staff just standing around. Apparently, thousands of doses are tossed out, due to people not going to take their jab (currently 61 years old and up + risk groups are being called).

What is even going on?! Atleast my old folks all got theirs, but why are so many not going?

Sweden is only like 7% vaccinated and they're plateauing? That's horrifying...

 

[sleepnaught]

It's definitely due to the stimulus packages and UI extensions. Not even debatable. Many jobs in my area start out at $18 a hour and offer sign up bonuses and they still aren't getting applications and this is in a low COL area where that's pretty decent pay.Head count where I work is dismal and we aren't getting anyone and they pay more than $20 a hour. Reality is people are lazy as fuck and just want free money, until these UI extensions end and the free money stops flowing this will continue. You offer the people the choice at sitting at home on their ass and being paid or working for a check, many due to zero sense of work ethic are going to choose the free check.

Yeah, I don't believe that is the norm at all. I work in a place with similar pay, and we had over 100 applicants for a handful of positions. Lots of temps around here too looking to get on. Anecdotes don't mean a whole lot.

 

[llien]

The Spanish study was retracted because they couldn't reproduce any of the results in a double blind study.

Do you have any source for that info?

 

[Belgorim]

Sweden is only like 7% vaccinated and they're plateauing? That's horrifying...

Nah, he is just spreading missinformation.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Do you have any source for that info?

Sure.

Vitamin D: The truth about an alleged Covid ‘cover-up’

The vitamin is being studied - but why do some claim evidence is being ignored?

www.bbc.com

"One particular paper from the University of Barcelona has attracted attention, claiming to be just this type of study.
It suggested vitamin D had staggering success, with an 80% reduction in intensive care admissions and a 60% reduction in Covid deaths.

It was widely shared online. But it has since been removed from the Lancet's preprint server over "concerns about the description of the research", and it is now being investigated.
The removal has not been shared in the way the original paper was."

 

[CloudNull]

Where are you? Vaccination rates are not the same everywhere. A lot of densely populated urban areas haven't gotten vaccinated in the same numbers. Look at Detroit, they just had a huge spike, but they were also only like 15-20% vaccinated, way behind the rest of the region

The bar for herd immunity is fairly high. The US is hitting it a little earlier than some other places because so many people already have acquired immunity from getting Covid. Within 4-5 weeks we might be at something like 75-80% of adults innoculated, even with only 65% vaccinated.

I know people will say "but kids", but I think kids natural resistance to Covid already puts them at a level where they aren't major vectors by themselves. Like they're pretty much at herd immunity levels when the rest of the population is too.

This doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't get your kids vaccinated, there's no harm in it, but I don't think they are a major consideration when talking about herd immunity.

I am in Oregon. The increase over the past few weeks percentage wise has been high but our numbers have always been low so in reality its not nearly as bad as the news makes it out to be. I think we are having issues because the weather is getting nicer and more people are going outside. The governor has stated all restrictions will be removed in June so I hope that is still the case.

 

[Jezbollah]

caveat: Bank Holiday weekend

However:



1

 

[llien]

Sure.

Vitamin D: The truth about an alleged Covid ‘cover-up’

The vitamin is being studied - but why do some claim evidence is being ignored?

www.bbc.com

"One particular paper from the University of Barcelona has attracted attention, claiming to be just this type of study.
It suggested vitamin D had staggering success, with an 80% reduction in intensive care admissions and a 60% reduction in Covid deaths.

It was widely shared online. But it has since been removed from the Lancet's preprint server over "concerns about the description of the research", and it is now being investigated.
The removal has not been shared in the way the original paper was."

Anything on it being non-replicatable?

 

[SF Kosmo]

Anything on it being non-replicatable?

What I said was that doing double blind studies where patients were given Vitamin D didn't show a statistically significant relationship.

There have been a lot of these studies. Here's an article about one:

Vitamin D not effective in moderate to severe COVID, study finds

www.cidrap.umn.edu

This doesn't mean that the initial Spanish study was bogus, mind you, it just means Vitamin D deficiency probably wasn't a root cause but an indicator of poor lifestyle and nutrition in general.

 

[Celcius]

Just got my 2nd dose of Pfizer. Now just waiting for 15 minutes before I leave. Feels good to finally have this done!

 

[SF Kosmo]

I am in Oregon. The increase over the past few weeks percentage wise has been high but our numbers have always been low so in reality its not nearly as bad as the news makes it out to be. I think we are having issues because the weather is getting nicer and more people are going outside. The governor has stated all restrictions will be removed in June so I hope that is still the case.

Yeah, man Oregon's daily death rate is down to less than 5, you guys are fine. Frankly shutting back down for that feels like a panic move trying to get it early, but it appears to have already peaked again, so I think you guys are fine.

A lot of places saw numbers rising throughout March, until vaccinations got a little higher and then it turned around. Happened all over the country. NJ was starting to have a surge that they worried was gonna be a big one, but once they got the vaccination numbers high enough, it turned around, and now it's falling at the fastest rate in over a year.

Seems like once you get to ~50% of adults things start to turn around. We probably want to get higher than that if we're gonna all start going to concerts and stuff again, but it's starting to look pretty good.

 

[arkhamguy123]

Reaching ‘Herd Immunity’ Is Unlikely in the U.S., Experts Now Believe (Published 2021)

Widely circulating coronavirus variants and persistent hesitancy about vaccines will keep the goal out of reach. The virus is here to stay, but vaccinating the most vulnerable may be enough to restore normalcy.

www.nytimes.com

The prevelence of new variants in the future is an assumption, but the numbers are clear that show a big issue of lack of sufficient uptake of the vaccines in the US. Herd immunity will struggle to be obtained without this. At the very least this will hinder recovery post pandemic, as the world heads into the endemic stage.

Facepalming so hard. The absolute refusal to acknowledge natural immunity is so stupid it makes my head spin. But I guess if you did you couldn't write up these click bait headlines. And people have been screaming variants since February and they have yet to wreck the USA despite spreading exponentially more month to month and week to week.

 

[Silent Viper]

China being China

Communist Party of China social media account faces backlash in China after mocking India’s COVID deaths

‘This is so inappropriate for an official account, it does not represent people of China’

www.google.com

Nothing is more pathetic than this

 

[bigsnack]

caveat: Bank Holiday weekend

However:



1

BOOM.

L.A. County reported no new COVID-19 deaths on Sunday

Los Angeles County public health authorities on Sunday reported no new deaths related to COVID-19. Although officials cautioned that the figure was probably an undercount because of reporting delay…

ktla.com

LA County had 0 deaths yesterday. Positivity rate is at 0.7%. The goose is most definitely cooked here.

 

[CloudNull]

China being China

Communist Party of China social media account faces backlash in China after mocking India’s COVID deaths

‘This is so inappropriate for an official account, it does not represent people of China’

www.google.com

Nothing is more pathetic than this

Not going to lie I laughed. It is super fucked on all levels but just shocked officials account have no chill..... like wtf.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Facepalming so hard. The absolute refusal to acknowledge natural immunity is so stupid it makes my head spin. But I guess if you did you couldn't write up these click bait headlines. And people have been screaming variants since February and they have yet to wreck the USA despite spreading exponentially more month to month and week to week.

Variants did fuck up Detroit pretty bad, since they have horribly low vaccination numbers.

But yeah, I am not buying this doomer story. We're already seeing strong evidence of herd immunity in states that have gotten to around 45-50% fully vaccinated, and we're also fast approaching the numbers of places like Israel that are seen as having achieved herd immunity. A few things:

1) Herd immunity is adults. Kids are not only not vaccinated yet, but their resistance to Covid is already like 80% compared to someone in their 30s, which means they essentially already have similar immunity to a vaccinated person (meaning they can get mildly sick and spread it, but they do so at a far lower rate).

2) If we look at the numbers of people who have gotten at least one dose, then within a month we'll be like 70% of adults vaccinated.

3) Of the 30-35% of adults who are expected to refuse or delay vaccination, it's estimated like half of them of them have had Covid, which means a degree of innocculation.

So, frankly, if the threshold for herd immunity is 80%, we're going to be there in a matter of weeks. The remaining population will continue to get and spread it and it will be endemic to a degree, but likely not to any extent our system can't handle.

Now with that said, we also have to remember it's a big country and this is regional. To some extent it's okay that Alabama or Wyoming have lower vax rates, because they frankly are more spread out already and don't have the same risk factors for the disease. The threshold for herd immunity is lower in places that are more spread out. Unfortunately, we do still have a problem where more vulnerable counties are not getting it as fast as the suburbs, that's what happened in Detroit, but that's more a matter of access than vaccine hestiancy.

EDIT: The article is not as bad as the headline, really. It just explains that we won't hit true "eradicate the disease" levels, just "little outbreaks and not as big a deal" levels. Which is probably true.

 

[EviLore]

China being China

Communist Party of China social media account faces backlash in China after mocking India’s COVID deaths

‘This is so inappropriate for an official account, it does not represent people of China’

www.google.com

Nothing is more pathetic than this

 

[Jezbollah]

Facepalming so hard. The absolute refusal to acknowledge natural immunity is so stupid it makes my head spin. But I guess if you did you couldn't write up these click bait headlines. And people have been screaming variants since February and they have yet to wreck the USA despite spreading exponentially more month to month and week to week.

No doubt the article is a little over dramatic. However right now you have a total of 33.1m cases of COVID 19 in the USA, which counts for 10% of your population with natural immunity. 44% of the US' population of 330m have had at least one jab of any vaccine. You are looking at a total of 55% of the population with antibodies. Vaccine uptake needs to be better, or the acceptance that a return to normal will always be heavily caveated.

 

[WoJ]

No doubt the article is a little over dramatic. However right now you have a total of 33.1m cases of COVID 19 in the USA, which counts for 10% of your population with natural immunity. 44% of the US' population of 330m have had at least one jab of any vaccine. You are looking at a total of 55% of the population with antibodies. Vaccine uptake needs to be better, or the acceptance that a return to normal will always be heavily caveated.

Don't disagree with your assertion that vaccine uptake ultimately needs to be higher, but that 33.1 million cases is probably much higher when you account for asymptomatic transmission.

 

[SlimySnake]

China being China

Communist Party of China social media account faces backlash in China after mocking India’s COVID deaths

‘This is so inappropriate for an official account, it does not represent people of China’

www.google.com

Nothing is more pathetic than this

lol China aiming for that worst country badge so bad.

The west needs to figure out how to criticize China without criticizing Chinese people. We need to hold China, the country, responsible once this is all said and done.

 

[SF Kosmo]

No doubt the article is a little over dramatic. However right now you have a total of 33.1m cases of COVID 19 in the USA, which counts for 10% of your population with natural immunity. 44% of the US' population of 330m have had at least one jab of any vaccine. You are looking at a total of 55% of the population with antibodies. Vaccine uptake needs to be better, or the acceptance that a return to normal will always be heavily caveated.

That's confirmed cases. We think the true number of cases is about triple that. But of course there is also some overlap between people who got Covid (some of whom may be unsure) and people who have been vaccinated so it's not as simple as just adding the numbers together either.

Most of the people I know who got Covid or think they got Covid were never tested. Either they got it from someone who was tested (and thus didn't feel they needed a test) or they got it before testing was wisely available or whatever. I also know someone who was regularly tested for work and never tested positive or had symptoms but came back positive for antibodies.

 

[ManaByte]

BOOM.

L.A. County reported no new COVID-19 deaths on Sunday

Los Angeles County public health authorities on Sunday reported no new deaths related to COVID-19. Although officials cautioned that the figure was probably an undercount because of reporting delay…

ktla.com

LA County had 0 deaths yesterday. Positivity rate is at 0.7%. The goose is most definitely cooked here.

But keep that mask on OR ELSE.

 

[SF Kosmo]

But keep that mask on OR ELSE.

Most places don't really have enforced masking mandates anymore, they're just advising people to do it until we hit our vaccination targets, which should be in like a few weeks in some states.


Let people wear a mask if they wanna, damn. Why do people care so much about other people wearing masks?

 

[ManaByte]

Most places don't really have enforced masking mandates anymore

CA does and they've already said they're keeping it in place even when 100% opening the state next month.

 

[SF Kosmo]

CA does and they've already said they're keeping it in place even when 100% opening the state next month.

Is CA's "mandate" enforced or is it just a strongly worded recommendation like everywhere else?

 

[ManaByte]

Is CA's "mandate" enforced or is it just a strongly worded recommendation like everywhere else?

It's a statewide mandate with the cities/counties up to how to enforce it. Some have larger fines than others.

 

[bigsnack]

Yeah CA is gnarly about the masks, and certain areas are very hardnosed about it. It's starting to ease up a tiny bit (I'm starting to see parents get lazy with the masks at my son's little league games), but there's a ton of people still running around with them on.

 

[SF Kosmo]

Yeah CA is gnarly about the masks, and certain areas are very hardnosed about it. It's starting to ease up a tiny bit (I'm starting to see parents get lazy with the masks at my son's little league games), but there's a ton of people still running around with them on.

People are pretty serious about masks here, but there are no kind of masks on kids at the park. Now that the weather is nice again, they're packed.

I think that's fine, honestly. I really have not seen any evidence of kids being a contributing factor to increasing numbers. I am all for keeping schools and parks open.

It gets a little dodgier when we're talking about like high school age, but young kids.

 

[ManaByte]

 

[Udham]

Please get yourself jabbed, and don't miss the second shot.
We have identified another variant (being called AP variant) in India, which is 15x times more virulent than earlier found Indian variant.
This is nothing short of bio-war.

 

[BadBurger]

Your COVID vaccine booster might be a patch or a pill. Or it might come with your flu shot.

The next generation of COVID vaccines may come in different forms and might even help prevent future pandemics.

www.cbsnews.com

I like the idea of taking a pill that's a combo flu vaccine and tweaked COVID-19 booster instead of two separate shots each year. Nothing is on the table yet (it will probably just end up being an annual shot is my guess) but I am glad they're looking at alternatives.

 

[Udham]

Your COVID vaccine booster might be a patch or a pill. Or it might come with your flu shot.

The next generation of COVID vaccines may come in different forms and might even help prevent future pandemics.

www.cbsnews.com

I like the idea of taking a pill that's a combo flu vaccine and tweaked COVID-19 booster instead of two separate shots each year. Nothing is on the table yet (it will probably just end up being an annual shot is my guess) but I am glad they're looking at alternatives.

We have something in works, in form of Nasal Drops, this could be revolutionary.
This blocks the covid infection itself.

If you take one dose of nasal vaccine you could block the infection and thereby block the transmission chain and then you can flatten the curve. It is just about 4 drops like Polio, 2 in one nostril and 2 in the other. Now global authorities like the WHO are getting convinced about nasal as a second-generation vaccine. Injectible vaccines don't stop transmission. We can tie up globally on nasal vaccines

https://www.republicworld.com/india...ossibility-of-nasal-vaccine-for-covid-19.html

 

[BadBurger]

We have something in works, in form of Nasal Drops, this could be revolutionary.
This blocks the covid infection itself.

https://www.republicworld.com/india...ossibility-of-nasal-vaccine-for-covid-19.html

Straight out of the movie Contagion. Damn that movie was eerily prophetic.

 

[Jaysen]

It's definitely due to the stimulus packages and UI extensions. Not even debatable. Many jobs in my area start out at $18 a hour and offer sign up bonuses and they still aren't getting applications and this is in a low COL area where that's pretty decent pay.Head count where I work is dismal and we aren't getting anyone and they pay more than $20 a hour. Reality is people are lazy as fuck and just want free money, until these UI extensions end and the free money stops flowing this will continue. You offer the people the choice at sitting at home on their ass and being paid or working for a check, many due to zero sense of work ethic are going to choose the free check.

This has been proven to be absolute horse shit, btw. Stop spreading garbage.

 

[Raven117]

but injections do stop transmission

 

[Chaplain]

 

[12Goblins]

China being China

Communist Party of China social media account faces backlash in China after mocking India’s COVID deaths

‘This is so inappropriate for an official account, it does not represent people of China’

www.google.com

Nothing is more pathetic than this

“China lighting a fire, India lighting a fire”

what the fuck

 

[bigsnack]

“China lighting a fire, India lighting a fire”

what the fuck

That truly is next level WTF. It's hard to believe for me actually, but THERE IT IS.

 

[Udham]

China being China

Nothing is more pathetic than this

WhiteWolf?